Thursday, September 27, 2012

Such exciting things are going on in the D.R! The Fall semester is officially in full swing as Makarios kicked off another school year
on September 19. As we drove through the streets of Montellano on our way to school, we were so encouraged to
see students dressed in their Makarios uniforms and excited about their first
day of school. The day went amazingly well and was better than
what was expected! The students were full
of excitement but well behaved throughout the day. If you want more of an “inside look,” check
out our video.

We are continuing to get acquainted with our new neighborhood. We love taking walks and meeting the
neighbors while practicing our Spanish.
This culture is very “community oriented” and you can find people
gathered around visiting at any time of day.
Everyone is so kind and eager to make us feel at home in this country. It has been fun for us to have a home that has become quite the place to hangout after school. At any given day, we can have
up to 25 kiddos playing basketball,
baseball, climbing fruit trees, or just running around in our yard. We love it and hope to influence these kids
for Christ.

And finally, last Saturday, we hosted a party for the Makarios staff and
their families – about 45 people in all!
It was fun to fellowship with the American, Dominican, and Haitian staff
and show them our appreciation for all their hard work and dedication to this
ministry. One thing about this culture,
they know how to have a good time!

We have so many highlights, in fact every day is filled with
them. But, here are just a few:

Margaret’s Highlights:
Hearing the kids at our gate yelling, “Paco” to see if we are home and
able to play. Also, I love driving down
our street and seeing Samuel, who is 2 years old, running out saying, “Adios
Paco!” Another highlight was hosting the All Staff Dinner and Game Night as well as Brunch with the ladies. Such a great time of fellowship.

Doug’s Highlights- Playing baseball in the backyard with the
neighborhood kids and being at Makarios and seeing the excitement on the first
day of school.

Monday, September 3, 2012

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been
here almost a full week.Hurricane Isaac
delayed our arrival by 2 days, but we got here just in time for our orientation
with Makarios.On our first
night in the DR, we were greeted with a Welcome Party given by the Dominican, Haitian
and American staff.We spent the next 2
days at orientation getting to know each other and learning more about Makarios’
mission.We capped off the week by having
fun with the staff at a local water park.

Back at our new home, we are
getting adjusted to our life here and we absolutely love it. We’ve ventured out of our neighborhood to go
shopping for groceries and to go to church.
This might not sound like an accomplishment until you witness the
driving here. Let’s just say that there
aren’t many road rules being followed.

Another big change that has
occurred since we arrived on the island is Doug’s name. We “officially” changed his name to PACO. We felt like this was necessary because of
the confused looks we got when people heard Doug’s name. One guy started barking and another said, “You
are moving with your DOG?” We quickly
realized that “Doug” doesn’t translate well.

One last change we thought we’d
mention is our new pet. When we moved
into our new place, we inherited a rooster named Lovey. (That’s him on the left.) He is good company and he makes sure that we
don’t oversleep in the mornings. We are
hoping to get 3 hens in the Fall.

We love the nights here. You can see a million stars and the sunsets are amazing. Also, our neighborhood is very active...from our home we can hear the Pentecostal church competing with the roosters crowing, the crowd cheering at the basketball tournament, dogs barking, horns honking, the guy driving the banana truck saying something through a megaphone, and other random neighbors' music...so different from what we are used to...and we love it! :-)